Americans are becoming acquainted with a U.S. Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices that is making waves by upsetting long-held precedents. Those who are old enough can remember when perhaps the most liberal court in the country’s history reigned from 1953 to 1969.

In 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Earl Warren as the country’s 14^th Chief Justice of the United States. Warren had been the Republican Party’s nominee for vice president in 1948 when Thomas E. Dewey was the party’s losing presidential candidate. It was the only election Warren ever lost.

The current high court has six conservative justices and three liberals. Former President Donald Trump appointed three of the conservatives.

The Associated Press said precedents that had stood since the 1970s have been overturned, especially those involving abortion and affirmative action.

A law professor at the University of Texas said, “That is what is notable about this court. It’s making huge changes in highly salient areas in a very short period of time.”

The court also rejected President Joe Biden’s $400 billion student loan forgiveness program and supported a Christian graphic artist who refused on free speech grounds to design websites for same-sex couples.

Although the court has made some surprising decisions, the four mentioned here have dominated the news. Like Earl Warren beginning in 1953, current Chief Justice John Roberts led the court’s biggest rulings.

A University of California at San Diego biography of Warren said, “Among the Warren Court’s most important decisions was the (1954) ruling that made racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Another was the (1964) one-man one-vote ruling that caused a major shift in legislative power from rural areas to cities.”

On May 17, 1954, Warren delivered the unanimous desegregation ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, that overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson ruling of 1896. The Plessy ruling upheld the constitutionality of Louisiana’s “separate but equal” Jim Crow law.

The 1954 ruling by Warren said state-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th Amendment and was unconstitutional. The ruling served to help expand the civil rights movement during the 1950s.

The AP said the segregation ruling would be “pressing down on the 17 Southern and border states where segregation is compulsory…” It added they would have to deal with the “weighty problems of remodeling school systems, reorganizing school districts, readjusting and reassigning teachers, changing school bus routes, and building more schools.”

Headlines in the American Press in 1954 said, “Southern states facing vast social change,” and “(Gov. Robert) Kennon says state to have ample time to solve its school problems.”

Kennon said, “I think the Legislature will consider carefully what it can do to give the state and local school boards every legal authority to maintain a satisfactory school system, which will include segregation in fact as it has been over the years.”

Many in the South did fight the decision and it would be another decade before desegregation actually took place. Louisiana schools were preparing for it during the 1960s and Calcasieu Parish was still dealing with the issue in 1969.

The next big change came in 1964 when The AP reported,  “A wholesale and historic revamping was decreed today by the Supreme Court.” It ruled that both houses of state legislatures had to be apportioned on a population basis.

Warren said, “We mean that the equal protection clause of the 14^th Amendment of the Constitution requires that a state make an honest and good-faith effort to construct districts in both houses of its legislature, as nearly of equal population as is practicable.”

Louisiana is currently dealing with the issue of creating a second majority-minority district for its congressional seats.

James Marlow of The AP covered the Supreme Court in the 1960s. He wrote, “The court has been accused of usurping power. If Congress thought so, it would have tried to curb the court. It did not. Instead, it accepted as law what the court did and has sought to conform to it.”

In 1962, the court said a defendant in a criminal trial had a right to an attorney in all key stages of court proceedings. In 1964, it said a defendant in such a trial had a right to face and question witnesses against him. The court also barred state judges and prosecutors from commenting to juries if a defendant refused to take the stand in his own defense.

Marlow said the court in 1962 “brought the roof down by barring official prayers in public schools.” In 1964, the court in United States v. Sullivan broadened the freedom of citizens to criticize public officials without penalty, unless the criticism was made with “reckless disregard” for the truth.

When Fox News was sued by Dominion Voting Systems over the 2020 presidential election, there was concern the issue might end up in the Supreme Court and that could reverse the Sullivan decision that also protects the media. However, the suit was settled out of court.

The court’s Miranda warning ruling came in 1966. Those arrested had to be told, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer with you during questioning.”

That same year, the court ruled that police taking a blood sample from an objecting motorist who is suspected of being intoxicated does not violate the federal Constitution.

Warren was no longer on the court on Jan. 22, 1973, when it issued its landmark 7-2 decision in Roe v. Wade that protected a woman’s constitutional right to choose. Warren Earl Burger was the court’s 15th chief justice from 1969 to 1986.

The current court overturned that decision 50 years later on June 24, 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It was a decision that some believe was the reason Republicans didn’t win a major majority in Congress in the 2022 midterm elections.

The current  U.S. House has 222 Republicans, 212 Democrats and 1 vacancy. The Senate has 48 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and 3 independents that caucus with the Democrats.

The Supreme Court has completed its current term and will next meet in the fall to resume hearing cases. Based on its recent controversial decisions, many Americans will be anxiously waiting to see what the court does next.